= new reply since forum marked as read
The bifurcation of American politics has been going on unabated for decades, we have ceased to have a functional "center" in American Congress or political life:
The fact is this aligns almost EXACTLY with the rise of Fox News and the cynical decision on the right to push the agendas further apart and more along artificial party lines than ever before...sure, we have ALWAYS had deep divisions on issues, and always will...but things like scientific studies and explanations (ie. climate science, but also things like creationism and evolution and vaccines) have been weaponized as wedge issues.
As the right continues to embrace positions solely based on the politics of them and ignores the science or the foundational logic for them in the first place, this will only continue to get worse...